InGaAs nanoelectronics: from THz to CMOS

Integrated circuits based on InGaAs Field Effect Transistors are now widely used in the RF front-ends of smart phones and other mobile platforms, wireless LANs, high data rate fiber optic links and many defense and satellite communication systems. InGaAs ICs are also under intense research for new millimeter-wave applications such as collision avoidance radar and gigabit WLANs. In the last few years, as Si CMOS faces mounting difficulties to maintain its historical scaling path, InGaAs-channel MOSFETs have emerged as a credible alternative for mainstream logic technology capable of scaling to the 10 nm node and below. To get to this point, a number of fundamental technical problems had to be solved though there are still many challenges that need to be addressed before the first non-Si CMOS technology becomes a reality. The intense research that this exciting prospect is generating will also reinvigorate the long march of InGaAs FETs towards the first true THz electronics technology. This talk will review progress and challenges of InGaAs-based FET technology for THz and CMOS.